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Sort of First proper DSO images


ngwillym

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to explain:-

Up until last year I was mainly a planetary/lunar/solar imaging guy - solar and lunar initially with a DMK camera and since the beginning of 2016 a ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool, planetary with an ASI224. now this stuff I 've got a reasonable handle on - take loads of short videos - generate almost terabytes of data in one evening plug it all into AS!2 or AS!3 process the result sin Registax or imPPG or similar and end up with reasonable images.

 

But this DSO stuff is another world (no pun intended) - do I go for lots of short exposures or a smaller number of long exposures and then how to process - and that's just for starters

Shortly after buying my ASI1600MM-Cool in January last year, I only had a small time to play with it for DSO imaging - other events (clouds, life) got in the way and then  it was May and the nights never got dark so I concentrated back on solar & other solar system objects. But this winter I vowed to get some proper DSO stuff.

And what better object than M42 - its bright - so short exposures should be OK.  with the help of Sharpcap's Brain function I decide to get lots (between 50 and 300) subs at 1s, 2s, 4s and 8s of LRGB. 

And then I read LIghtvortex's tutorial on producing an HDR image - talk about jumping in the deep end!

But I have got a result - 50subss each @ 1s, 2s, 4s for RGB, 100subs each for L @1,2,4,8s and matching flats

I can see that I have a lot to learn - about processing, using darks properly, dithering and heaven knows what else

Images captured with ASI1600MM-Cool @-15c with ZWO matching EFW & filter set on Opticstar 127mm f7.5 APO. Processed in Pixinsight and resized in PS CS5 to fit on here

And before I got around to processing that lot - we had some more clear skies so I thought I'd try for the Horsehead - that took me two attempts - I didn't fully understand the field of view of my scope & camera combination and missed the HH by ~ 1.4 degree on the first night. Only got RGB for this one so far - L will have to wait for next winter - it's behind the trees now from my obsy :-(.

Comments, advice, guidance etc all welcome.

Neil

LRGBMasterHDR_CC_web.jpg

B33RGBMaster_BN_CC_HT_web.jpg

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Good start to DSO imaging.

Starting out with a mono camera and filters isn't easy. Perhaps you could concentrate on taking mono (luminance) images to start with, reducing complexity before adding colour? Dithering is a great way to improve images by reducing noise.

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You have been bitten.....prepare yourself (and those around you)!  As far as the images--great captures.  In general, green is eschewed in deep sky imaging, except in some planetary nebula, as it is not typically visible....though it is needed to generate a RGB or LRGB palette.  You have PI...have you dived deeply into the learning curve?  Having a good understanding of the processing will enable your data to be its best.  Your data looks pretty good-stars are round, not bloated.  You have displayed the trapezium!  That is good acquisition work.  Your background looks good too.  You are well on your way. Keep looking at the amazing images from several folks on this forum with a critical eye and yours will start to improve rapidly.

Rodd

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Bobro - mono is a good idea - at least that way I can work on my processing techniques and then gather the RGB on subsequent nights -  alredy done that for M1, M67 and NGC2903.

 

rodd, thanks for the tips - never sure about green myself - but you see so many multicolured M42 its difficult to know what is 'real' And yes - Pixisnight - quite a learning curve, but I've got a basic workflow from Lightvortex, supplemented by the Pixinsight book by Warren Keller - still very basic at the moment.

 

Still lots to learn

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